A Boy Scout's Blog

So, this year our lodge hosted the Section NE-3A Conclave that was held on August 13-15, 2010 at Camp Russell. Over 180 arrow men attended this outstanding event.

Friday afternoon I arrived at camp at around 2:00pm to start setting up camp and get ready for the storm of scouts that was set to hit later that day. Once I had set my gear down in the site were I thought I was staying I headed back to the camp headquarters to start checking in the members of our lodge who had arrived. We soon set up a registration area and got ready to check in the rest of the lodge’s as they arrived. For the rest of the afternoon and evening I spent most of my time in the office checking in lodges from all over the state and some from as far away as Pennsylvania, I did get a chance to sneak over to the trading post for a few minutes to get a cookiewich though. At dinner time I took a short break to grab some food from the dining hall but soon I was back on the job. Registration went very smoothly which was good since the sorting of memorabilia which was being done by our lodge as well was not going as smoothly. A mistake in ordering had occurred and they where short t-shirts and other memorabilia. They were still trying to fix the problem when the rest of us left for the opening show which was a movie made by one of the lodges that showed us the place of an ordeal member in the lodge. After the show everyone converged on the dining hall for a great cracker barrel. Following the cracker barrel I headed over to the program center to help take minutes for the Council of Chiefs meeting since the section secretary was not going to be able to come to conclave. After the meeting we headed back to the office with the section advisors to sort out the memorabilia problem once and for all. After that was taken care of we all headed off to bed since we had a very long day ahead of us tomorrow.

After being a sleep what only seemed like a short period our alarms were going of and immediately we knew we needed to get moving, or else we would miss the flags raising, which we were in charge of. Soon enough everyone had assembled in front of the flag poles on the parade field and we were raising the colors. Immediately after flags we all headed over to the dining hall where we were greeted by members of our lodge guarding the doors, preventing unauthorized access before mealtime. When the doors to the dining hall opened it was like opening the flood gates as almost 200 people stormed in to have breakfast. Breakfast was served family style and was a delicious meal of eggs and bacon. After I was finished I headed back over to headquarters to finish registration for lodges who had not checked in all their members at once. Once I finished fixing the registration I headed over to the program center for my first training class, Costuming and Beadwork. During this class our instructor discussed how to choose a period of American Indian history to emulate and how to find what types of materials where available then. It was a very interesting course and I walked away with some valuable information that will definitely help us improve our costuming. After my costuming class I took a short walk outside to the handicraft  pavilion for a class on ceremonial team retention. While I didn’t feel the class was very good at what it was supposed to teach I did learn that you should try to have your ceremony team made up of scouts from many units and that you have to make it fun (duh). I also got to learn a bit about how other lodges conduct there ceremonies. After that class had ended I took a longer walk down to scout craft for the high adventure class, taught by none other than our Northeast region chief. The class was very interesting as Brian discussed the different high adventure opportunities that the OA offers and he even shred his own ex experience with us which was very interesting. After high adventure myself and some of our other lodge members headed back up the hill and we decided to stop at the camp cooking area to see what kind of food they had going. A couple of our guys got to have some fantastic cobbler and many other great foods that they had made. After our guys had gotten there fill of cobbler we decided to go help set up the dining hall for lunch. Soon the dining hall became a full of activity as we all worked quickly to set all the tables with silverware and the food for lunch which was sub sandwiches. The one good thing of helping to set up the dining hall is that you are the first to enter and the first to sit down and eat. I was only halfway done with my sub though when Nolan, our lodge chief came in and told me that I was being sent in his place to the Very Important Arrow men Luncheon, a luncheon for the lodge chief and the youngest member of the lodge. This luncheon gave me a chance to meet people from all over our section and the food was pretty good too. So after my second lunch I headed back over to the office to check in and see how things were going, then I headed down to the chapel to watch the meet-the-man with the northeast region chief, Brian Ahrens. After the meet the man I headed back up to the trading post for a slushy and then I decided to take a trip to the waterfront to see what was happening down there. When I arrived at the waterfront I heard he national anthem playing and i soon discovered that a water skiing show was happening out on the lake! After the ski show ended the waterfront soon became packed as everyone ready for the swamp-a-thon. The swamp-a-thon is a contest in which everyone tries to sink each others canoes as the area they are in steadily shrinks. This is a very fun event and I was more than happy to stay on land and take photos then get stuck out in a canoe without a paddle. Following the fun at the waterfront a candidates forum was held with those who were running for section office. After the candidates forum it was only a matter of time before i was back in the dining hall setting the tables for dinner. Dinner was another fantastic meal of roast beef, mashed potatoes and green beans. Following dinner everyone headed once again to  the chapel for a religious service that was led by our own lodge chief. After the great religious service everyone headed back to the council ring for another great show, this time it was a star wars version of the ordeal ceremony complete with guys dressed up with light sabers. The show was a bit funnier than the movie the night before and I found it rather enjoyable. After the show we all gathered outside the dining hall for a conclave staple, the chief’s pie eating contest. The rules are simple, whichever lodge chief eats his entire pie, crust and all, first wins. Oh and you may not use your hands. This is always fun to watch and this year proved no  different as each lodge’s chief proceeded to get pie all over his face as he tried to win the title of pie eating champ. As the whipped cream cleared a winner was declared and sadly it was not Nolan but he made a good run and we know our chief next year will try his best to. After the pie eating contest it was time for another great cracker barrel, this time with ice cream. As people came and went from the cracker barrel another event got under way in the dining hall, the patch auction. The patch auction is a big deal at conclave and this year many great patches went up for auction and were won. While the patch auction was going on in the dining hall and Star Wars was being shown in the program center I took to the parade field to play some glow in the dark ultimate Frisbee. To do this each team was given glow sticks of different colors, the boundaries were marked with glow sticks and we used a light-up jambo 2010 Frisbee. It was an intense game of ultimate and while tempers got rather hot during the match in the end the spirit of the game prevailed and everyone walked away happy from a fun game of ultimate. Soon after we ended our game it was time to head off to bed as we had a lot to do tomorrow with breaking down camp.

Sunday morning we got moving right on time and I headed over to the dining hall to help set up for breakfast which was going to be pancakes and sausage. Soon enough breakfast was served and it was time for the section business meeting. During this meeting the election of section officers was done.  We elected a new section chief, vice-chief and secretary. After the section officers had been elected the conclave awards were given out and Nolan and I were both honored with the two awards for individual arrowmen. Nolan was  given the most outstanding arrowman award and I was given the most cheerful arrowman award. We were very surprised and honored to receive these. After the section meeting we all went outside to sing the OA song and we attempted to make a circle. Once that was done I headed back to the office to do check-out as the lodge’s left camp. Slowly but surely every lodge was gone and it was time for us to go, but not before getting some free ice cream and slushies and of course a little lunch. As we all left camp we knew we had done well and this had been a very successful conclave in the books.

Are you an OA Member? Have you ver been to a section conclave? Please share your experience in the comments below.

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